Tappan, Henry P. The Doctrine of the Will, applied to Moral Agency and Responsibility [Signed binding]. New-York: Wiley and Putnam, 1841. First Edition. [10645]
Black cloth with blind pattern, binding signed "Colton & Jenkins, Binders" on front and back. Gilt titles to spine, spine slightly faded, 7 3/4 x 5 inches. Contemporary bookseller's stamps on the ffep, "Sage & Brothers, Rochester." xii, 348 unmarked pp., light foxing, tight. Very good. Hardcover.
This work reflects the influence of "new school" theology, and attempts to reconcile the freedom of the will, human responsibility, and the ability of the sinful man to repent and believe the gospel. In so doing,Tappan rejects the theologies of Augustine and Jonathan Edwards and the concept of original sin as an inherited depravity. He states, as did New School reasoners before him did, that "that sin for which we are condemned, is an actual and self-conscious transgression of the law...There is nothing said about a condemnation which we have inherited, or our being condemned for any thing which we have inherited."
Henry Philip Tappan, D.D., LL.D., (1805-1881), b. Rhinebeck, N.Y.d. Vivay, Switzerland. Tappan graduated at Union College, 1825; and at Auburn Theological Seminary (1827), and was pastor of two churches before resigning due to poor health. In 1832 he became Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in the University of the City of New York; and in 1852 was made Chancellor (the first) of the State University of Michigan, where he met much opposition due to his Yankee and "aristocratic" manner, and was not conservative enough for the locals. Tappan retired in 1863 and spent the rest of his life in Europe.
